Conventional brushes comprise tufts of bristles each having a first end which is held captive in and which is fixed to a brush head, and a second end which is free and which is used for brushing. The free ends of the various tufts present a surface envelope which is capable of slight deformation by the bristles bending when they come into contact with a surface to be brushed, but which is incapable of adequately matching a surface having a complex shape with too much difference in level. In particular, contact with adequate pressure is not ensured in the hollows of such a surface to provide proper brushing.
Thus, with toothbrushes, the desire of the user to cause the bristles to penetrate into the space between teeth as expressed by forceful application of the brush against the teeth merely leads to excessive application of the brush against the teeth and the gums without providing adequate brushing in the space between the teeth. The final result is unsatisfactory.
An object of the present invention is to remedy this defect by providing a brush in which the tufts of bristles are capable, independently of one another, of retracting resiliently into the brush in such a manner as to enable the surface envelope defined by the free ends of said tufts to continuously match the shape of the surface to be brushed, without any major difference in the force applied to the various zones of said surface by the various tufts of bristles.